Credit: Unknown

Credit: Unknown

Forest Whitaker's commanding performance in 2006's "The Last King of Scotland" earned him an Oscar, but didn't lead to similarly soaring roles.

Credit: Unknown

Kate Winslet accepting the Academy Award for 2008's "The Reader." She and husband, director Sam Mendes, divorced not long after.

Credit: Unknown

Reese Witherspoon won big for "I Walk the Line" (2005), but soon after split with husband Ryan Phillippe

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Here’s a question for those who made the cut for the Academy Award nominations, announced today: Are you sure you want to win?

I speak of the “Oscar Curse,” the blight that strikes some winners, leading to professional or personal heartbreak.

The legend began in Hollywood’s Golden Age when Germany’s Luise Rainer won not one but two consecutive Best Actress Oscars — for 1936’s “The Great Ziegfeld” and ’37’s “The Good Earth” — and then virtually disappeared from the silver screen within five years. (Rainer, 103, is still around today, along with her Oscars.)

The Oscar Curse can have practical causes.

Stars can price themselves out of contention for suitable roles or decide they must do “Oscar-worthy” roles that have little appeal beyond prestige.

Best Actress winner Halle Berry (2001’s “Monster’s Ball”) repeatedly declared she was not going to be stymied in her subsequent choice of parts — but “Catwoman” and “Gothika” were not the way to go.

Then there are the character actors who win by giving the performance of their lives, never to be topped. Few character actors achieve true stardom.

Australia’s Geoffrey Rush (Best Actor, 1996’s “Shine”) found that Oscar launched him internationally for a leading man career.

Similarly, Marion Cotillard’s Best Actress win as France’s iconic singer Edith Piaf in 2007’s “La Vie en Rose” led to a brilliant mix of leading roles in Hollywood and European films while a trio of Best Actress Oscar winners — Louise Fletcher (1975’s “On Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”), Marlee Matlin (1986’s “Children of a Lesser God”) and Kathy Bates (1990’s “Misery”) — did not exactly score, much less soar, in their subsequent film careers.

Then there is the Oscar Curse that strikes many Best Actress winners, who suddenly find themselves single. Both Sandra Bullock (2009, “The Blind Side”) and Kate Winslet (2008, “The Reader”) divorced shortly after their wins.